Video: Restoring files with Time Machine

Once you've backed up your files using Time Machine, you should know how to recover files if they become deleted accidentally, or overwritten. The restore process for Time Machine couldn't get any easier. Let me show you how this works. Before I show you how to restore these files, I'm actually going to go into my Home folder. So I'm going to go create a new Finder window. I'm going to go into my Pictures folder, and I'm going to delete this Fun Pics folder. So I'm going to simulate the process of me accidentally removing files on my computer.

Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of Apple OS X, adds more than 200 new features to the operating system. In this workshop, author and expert Chad Chelius shows you how to take advantage of all the power that Mountain Lion puts at your fingertips. After learning how to install and set up the software, create and work with user accounts, and find your way around the interface, you'll get tips on using Mountain Lion to surf the web, send email, play audio and video, and much more. And you'll be introduced to new features like dictation, the Notification Center, and the Reminders, Notes, and Messages applications.

Restoring files with Time Machine

Once you've backed up your files using Time Machine, you should know how to recover files if they become deleted accidentally, or overwritten. The restore process for Time Machine couldn't get any easier. Let me show you how this works. Before I show you how to restore these files, I'm actually going to go into my Home folder. So I'm going to go create a new Finder window. I'm going to go into my Pictures folder, and I'm going to delete this Fun Pics folder. So I'm going to simulate the process of me accidentally removing files on my computer.

So, there's that Fun Pics folder, it's in the trash, and now I'm going to empty the trash. (audio playing) There we go, so you can see that my trash can is empty. Now what I'm going to do, is I'm going to go to the folder where those files used to be. So I'm going to go to the File menu, choose New Finder Window, and we'll go to my Pictures folder. And as you can see, those files are gone. Now what I'm going to do now is I'm going to activate Time Machine. So I'm going to come over here to my Launch Pad, and I'm going to click on Time Machine in the Other category, to launch Time Machine on my computer. Now what you're going to see here is essentially the space time continuum of the files on your computer.

And basically, what it's showing you is the current state in time. But then if you look over here, you also have different states of when the files were backed up. Now if I want to, I can click on today at 3:09, and that's going to bring that to the current state. Or I could even click on one of these windows, to bring that window to the current state. So we can see that now we're at today at 2:54, as indicated right here. Now I'm going to click on the Fun Pics folder. And then I'm going to click the Restore button (audio playing) And you'll notice that, as if by magic, these files have automatically been copied back to their original location. And here's all of my original files.

As you could see, with Time Machine, you can work confidently knowing that you always have access to your data when disaster strikes. When you're working on your computer and your hard drive fails, what you would do is restore your computer to the original software. And then you'll be given the opportunity to restore from a Time Machine backup at that point, as well.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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